$40,000 up for grabs; information session planned for next week
An idea may be all it takes to win thousands of dollars this fall in the Proving Ground, USC’s entrepreneurial challenge.
The Proving Ground will offer $40,000 in prize money to the students or groups with the best ideas for new businesses and products.
“We’re looking for a reasonable, feasible concept for an idea for a business with an identifiable, measurable market and the ability of the submitting team to make it happen and to manage and market it,” said Dean Kress, associate director of the Faber Entrepreneurship Center at the Darla Moore School of Business.
Kress also runs the competition, which he started three years ago.
The top award is the SCRA Technology Ventures Prize, cashing in at a cool $15,000. The winning business plan will be “focused on taking innovative technologies into the marketplace,” according to the competition’s Facebook page.
The second largest prizes are the first-place winner and the first runner-up for the Innovista Innovation Prizes of $10,000 each. These awards will be given to the groups with the best business concept, plan and pitch.
Another $5,000 is up for grabs in the Maxient Social Impact Prize.
“That one is for either companies that directly approach a societal problem or, through their operation, address a societal problem,” Kress said.
With sponsorship funding, the amount of prize money swelled to eight times the size of last year’s award, $5,000, which was given to USC graduate Stephen Bateman, the creator of the Garnet Report, a daily email newsletter marketed toward USC students.
All prize winners will also receive entry into the USC/Columbia Technology Incubator’s Student Program for six months free of charge; guidance on intellectual property and licensing issues from the USC Office of Technology Commercialization; assessments, consultations and ongoing advisory support by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation (CETi) and the Faber Entrepreneurship Center; and Mentor and coach matchmaking through CETi.
In addition to its increased funding, the Proving Ground has also received other support from Innovista and CETi staffers.
“We’ve expanded the management team — I was pretty much on my own before — but now with the help, we’re making this tremendous,” Kress said.
The competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at all eight of USC’s campuses statewide.
The deadline for submissions is Oct. 21, and an informational session for any interested students will be held Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. in room 750 of the Business Administration Building.